This is the place ...

This is the place where we stayed for 4 nights

Our room is right to the tower. The room had a door which lead into the tower and allowed us to walk upstairs.

This is the stairway up to the gallery of our tower which turned us into damsels at the castle.


This is the view from our room

This is me rowing

Can you imagine how much FUN it is, rowing in a wooden boat, built in the 1950's, wearing a bathing suit. What a boost for any immune system. You know the sensation when you can't help but smiling.Rowing a boat, having no duties and no place to go to, I felt the bliss I probably encountered back then.

This is where we went for lunch the other day

This is the dessert we had the other day: apricot-dumblings with perfect breadcrumbs made of Semmeln

This is what I enjoyed for the dessert another day

This is close to the place we parked our car in Bad Ischl.

And this is the park in Ischl which surprised us.

Had Rosamunde Pilcher visited this park recently? We did not expect to find these perfect flower beds in Upper Austria.

This is the view I wanted to show you! Lake Attersee rules!

This is the dress I wore

This is the tree which protected me from the sun while pausing during our hike in the nearby hills.

This is where Gustav Klimt put his easel when painting "Schloss Kammer"

I took a short break together with my best friend. We visited my parents, a co-worker, Mr Paula's godfather ... which is exactly the spirit of this region, the Salzkammergut, known as the Viennese summer-resort since tourism developed in the 19th century. I spent there vacations at the age of 14, 15, returned at the age of 25, 30 and 36 and this year for the first time with my best friend.

This is the weight I gained during the trip. You may guess- pounds or kilos?

Time to go to bed. Should be sweet dreams tonight.

The Queen of Routines

I have to admit I don't deal too well with any changes that take place close to me. Call me the Queen of Routines! A few weeks ago my colleague announced, she is leaving. She has been around ever since I entered the firm, we have been sharing a room for almost 7 years. Oh yes, the seven year itch!

Changes stress me and I know my ways to relief stress. One strategy that always works for me is tidying up.

This brother-device is ... fun!

I started the major project at work, getting videos and audio-files into order. It is soothing and brings peace to my mind.

Another stratagy is thinking of nice people. LPC commented earlier about the stately appearance
of my home-city Vienna. I like having her thoughts on my mind when I cycle through the city. Today I could not resist taking a picture of the really stately, well, more imperial Museum of Natural Sciences, very close to my workplace. I was on my way back from lunch-break:

The third stratagy for today is my little camera (Please take a look at the link, it is an amazing micro-site which expresses my thoughts when it comes to photography. Unfortunately I can't link directly to the special-content site).

She surprises me again and again, how well she behaves. Probably the most underestimated device on Earth. This church-photo is crop, I am about 1km away from the "Minoriten-Church". One of the best features of the camera is the sky. My SLR can't catch the clouds the way the DP1 does.

This church looks particullary nice in the early morning before sunrise when the sky turns pale pink.

Goodbye, I am off to channeling Martha Stewart with my littel brother-device, let me label the world!

Eddie, the man with an open mind

A few days ago I have been buzzing with excitement - Eddie & Jaithen left a comment! They liked it around here. I have been following Eddie's Blog for some time. But it was this particular posting where Eddie transformed a neglected bench into a beauty.

"Flea markets are full of hidden treasures like these. Just keep an open mind, and you never know what you'll find!".
Eddie Ross

This morning my colleague at work surprised me with a true finding. She did not find it at a fleemarket but way below fleemarket-level: next to the container with used clothes in the street:

An old slide-storage. From the 1960's. Agfa was kind of Europe's KODAK. It is worth zooming in, just look at the beautiful typo!

The people who gave it away knew, it would have been a pity, to throw it in the garbage. And: They had style! At least when it comes to choosing destinations:

Can you read the memories: Capri, Rom, Cap d'Antibes - they surely knew where to go!

A few days ago, before havibg read Eddie's posting, I probably would have been overwhelmed by gift. What to do with this neglected souvenir? But having Eddie's bench on my mind I can literally see the hidden treasure in the box. I will keep the typo on top but renew the front lid and remove the plastic-compartments at the inside and line it with some fabric paper. And of course the ribbon will be renewed, too!

The mindset would not be complete without Pipilonia's creativity. She shows you how to make an album DIY. That's where I got to know fabric paper.

1st Eddie, 2nd Pipilonia + my colleague showing up with the surprise - it makes perfectly sense! I only feel a bit sorry not being able to show you any photos of the transformation yet, since I am in the middle of "the other project":
Sticking 300 photos into an album.

Gambatte (gahm-baht-teh)

Tonight is Blogger-Night. This last pictures goes out to cotton socks: cotton, this an Austria dish, Kaiserschmarrn. You rather not accompany it with a cocktail. More likely with cold milk. :))
Good night!

Favourite Places - Part I

2010 won't be the year of great getaways. Time to enjoy previous escapisms.

Austria once bordered on the Mediterranean. And way before that, there was a sea all over Austria. Some days, preferably in late autumn, you get the chance to see the sea:

Above the Klagenfurt basin, late afternoon before sunset, Carinthia 11/2008

How I define those places which make me happy? Sitting in Vienna right now, looking at such a picture I feel a sentiment *sigh*

More to come!

Edit:
I entered the photo in a Homeland-"competition"
luziapimpinella.blogspot.de

Go West

The opening image is just an eyecather. has nothing to do with the following ... I just like it for the fact that is an eyecatcher. That's why it is around all year long despite being a christmas-thingy.

After yesterday's exitement - the paper experience - I decided to take it down a notch, time for a cool down.

During summer my way back from work takes me to the outskirts of Vienna. You are going to see this ride by bike step by step.

Here I am at Westbahnhof, a huge building lot where the new central station to be is developping. The pictures lack saturation due to the daytime (8pm) and the dry, hot sandy air in the city.

Some of you might remember the flower bed that caught my attention this spring.

Here you see the same flower bed in summer. The plants hold up really well, despite the heat.

Attention, attention: the flowers are the same flowers you can see in the picture above, the round flower bed in front of the construction site at Westbahnhof.

I admire the choices of colours. Not too colourfull but well assorted they are:

I had the chance to meet one of the people in charge who decide which colours will bloom all over the city, millions of plants planted in hundreds and thousands of flower-beds. The trend is "less is more". 3 colours at most!

Mr Paula and I spend the summer in the outskirts of the city, imitating the emperor anno 1910, he also escaped the city and spend the summer months in Schönbrunn, his residence. Well, our home is not Schönbrunn palace, but since I pass it on my way home from work I thought why not stop and take a thorough look:

Thesde pictures tell the story. The ride home is tranquil, the air is warm and the city slows down. Vienna is a city that does sleep. At night. And night starts early around here.

Go West!

I could not live without my "comfort shopper", the attached basket in front of the bike.

The emperor had his private underground-station, the Kaiserpavillon around 1900.

This window is part of 'Fuchs', the place where go would go to get either: Lampe Berger AND The Laundress. Shall we call it Ladies' and Gent's heaven?

Having admired the store way too long, it got dark by the time I continued the ride home.

Good night and enjoy this August-weekend!

What is Happening? Scrapping ?!

Hello my dears!
I have been neglecting my cameras lately which leads straight to neglecting the blog because the one can't be without the other. What have I been doing lately, so busy? No, I did not launder all the time.

To some of you my latest passion might be even worse than laundring.
If you would have told me one week ago that I would post pictures of a card I scrapped myself by August 5 ...
Scrapping? Me? ? Excuse me ...


Lets put two and two together and here it is: The obvious. First incident: spotting the cover I handcrafted for my mum 30years ago. Only we did not call it scrap back then. Second incident: I watched "New in Town" which starts with ladies, scrapping.

The rest is ... well, see for yourselves:

none of these things have been around but the day before yesterday

Tweezers-scissors! Who can live without a pair of these?

You might want to cut out a snail:

Ok, we can do better than that!

Paper! I used to spend a large amount of my pocket-money on paper.

How could I neglect this passion for so long?

There is more paper around, gift wrapping paper.

No paper is safe from Paula no more. Cut cut cut cut cut

Having had cut all the gift wrapping paper - fruit wise - it was time time to get started. To me more precise: 11pm.

ta daa! this creation just came out of my mind!

I had no idea how good it feels to make decisions like "how wide should the red stip be? 1 inch or two?" And which fruit should align the journaling-page?

Since this was way too exciting, I decided to try embossing for the first time ever, at 12.30am.

The kitchen-toaster provides heat and makes the letters pop up. Quasi a zero-kcal pop up tart.

Mr Paula stated the left hand of the inside of the card was a bit too rectangular.
I agree!


Today, like every morning since monday, I hit the handcrafts-store before going to work.
I suceeded and continued:

Nothing works better than butterflies plus triangles to loosen up ANY situation.

I am still undecided to whom I will send this card to. My sponsor? My oldest friend who loyaly send me birthdaycards every year?
Surprise! Ranking the suprising changes in the year of the metal tiger, I rank scrapping only a little below going blonde. hehe. Both are fun. Both are pricey. Whoa!